Lisa’s Lake House #5

As I was painting on this fifth pass over the canvas, the phone rang. I was between colors and just staring at the canvas, so contrary to my normal phone habits while painting, I answered.

The caller identified herself, and I was completely blank mentally.  Completely. I realized that I was concentrating so much on the details of the painting that I felt as if I was at the lake in Minnesota. In addition to not putting down the brush, not interrupting the flow of thoughts is another reason to let the answering machine pick up while painting.

After showing Lisa step #4, she made a few requests and changes and additions. I paid attention, then put on my strongest magnifying glasses and went to work on the details of the distant lake line along with some other things. I LOVE detail. (Hmmm, I’ve mentioned this before, yes?)

Here is the latest pass over the canvas:

The lake was looking rather ocean-ish. Because I couldn’t see the horizon line in any of the photos, and Lisa asked me to open up the trees for a better view of the lake, I was just baffled as to what to do. (My normal thing is to bury stuff that I can’t see under growing things.)

Lisa sent me a video, taken while standing on her dock and slowly turning 360 degrees around the entire lake view. I watched that video numerous times, and then paused it and studied the distant shore line. Aha! So THAT’s how a lake shore looks at a distance. . .

The house and windows now have tighter detail. There needs to be more shadow on the house, but not as much as in the photo sitting at the base of the easel. I’ll work on that next.

I began “planting” things below the house on the left. When Lisa advises me as to whether or not these are believable, then I’ll either turn them into something else or continue. (Well, duh, Captain Obvious.)

Mineral King is Closed

Hmmm, this is all so weird. I will refrain from sharing my opinion about the government shut down, because people come to this blog to be entertained and inspired. Discussing a difficult and divisive subject could possibly be entertaining, but I doubt if it would be inspiring.

Have a look at a painting of a familiar, comforting scene in Mineral King. Feel inspired. Feel entertained. Don’t worry, be happy!

Mineral King Autumn, 8×8″, oil on wrapped canvas, $95, sold


Lisa’s Lake House #4

Nope, not the fourth lake house of Lisa; it is the 4th pass across the canvas.

In my opinion, the sky, clouds, lake and trees are finished. However, my opinion is subject to change, and if I see something to improve, pass the paint brushes and step aside!

The roof, the porch and steps all seem finished to me, but Lisa has the final say.

I’ve resized and repositioned the windows until they finally look right. (or perhaps I have commission fatigue? Lake house fatigue? Lake house painting blindness syndrome?)

Lisa’s Lake House, 3

Lisa is enjoying watching her painting develop as this California (cabin) artist paints a Minnesota (lake) house. Apparently she isn’t squeamish. Because there is no one photo that says it all, she needs to be involved.  For example, in most photos that she provided, the trees look very thick. But, she wants to see the lake and remembers how it looked when they had those trees thinned out for the lake view.

I sent her this photo after my third pass over the canvas.

The very tall tree on the right of the house is too tall for the width of its branches. I wanted to add much wider branches at the base. Lisa asked that I simply shrink the tree. It probably needs both things to happen.

As I looked through all the photos, some on paper and some on my computer, I saw a picture of the house that shows a tad bit more of the right side. It looked better to me, so I scooted things around a bit. I also increased the size of the windows to be more accurate and began adding detail to the porch area.

I love detail. I LOVE DETAIL. I LOVE DETAIL!

(Do you believe me?)

Lisa had asked me to remove one of the birches on the lower right. I did. She asked me to put it back. I will. I’m just easy to get along with that way. 😎

Let’s get through these decisions so I can get to the detail sooner – I can’t wait!!

Lisa’s Lake House 2

Lisa reviewed the progress from painting session #1 and sent me some more information. It is rather astonishing to realize the amount of words and communication necessary to create a painting from someone else’s photos. There isn’t a single photo that says it all, so many photos with lots of explanation is the only way to understand it well enough to paint it.

Here it is after the 2nd painting session.

More paint to cover the orange (WHY do some artists think that it is good to paint the canvas orange?  Furthermore, WHY did I listen to them??), evergreens thinned (fewer of them and fewer branches than before), horizon line raised (it didn’t show in the photos where the lake sort of peeked through the trees so I guessed, and guessed wrong)

I think the painting looks fairly good now if you view it from the back of a fast horse.

Lisa’s Lake House, a Commissioned Oil Painting

Lisa’s family has a lake house in Minnesota, somewhere northern and treed and lakey and gorgeous. She asked me to paint it.

After briefly considering a request to be flown there to see it with my own eyes, I came to my senses and said “Yes, of course I can work from your photos.”

(I have yet to find a customer who will fly me to her lake house in Michigan or Minnesota, family estate in South Africa or Brazil, beach house on Cape Cod or the Outer Banks, log home in Montana or Colorado, et cetera. What am I doing wrong here??)

Lisa wrote me some very thorough notes. We emailed often when she was at the lake house. She took photos. We spoke on the phone. We wrote a few more emails.

Then, I did a sketch for her.

We emailed a bit more. She mailed some more photos. I took copious notes.

Then, I primed a canvas in the orange that was already on my palette. Orange is in the middle of the dark to light spectrum, so it is rumored to be a good priming color.

I emailed her a photo similar to this and warned her not to be scared by the sloppiness. I’ve heard that watching a painting happen is similar to watching sausage being made. Couldn’t prove it by me; however, I do know that my paintings begin their lives looking a little loosey-goosey, sloppy-woppy, ugly-bugly.

Put on your rose-colored glasses, willya for Pete’s Sake?

(Who is Pete?)

Responding to the Voices in My Head

That’s a scary title, is it not?

“Sisters” took a long time to paint. The customer hired me because she liked my precision, and she gave me all the time necessary to complete this to both of our satisfaction.

When I paint, I listen to lots of things. There is music, podcasts, talk radio, books on tape, and voices in my head, including my own.

An aside: Someone said we should talk to ourselves the way we talk to our best friends. You know how sometimes you say things to yourself like, “How could you be so dumb?” (Maybe you don’t – please just play along for a moment. . .) If your best friend did something dumb, you’d be more likely to say, “That’s okay – stuff happens and we can learn from it.” Or, “Don’t worry about it – it is a small thing that can be fixed.”

This is what I have chosen to believe and follow:

  1. I am a studio painter who works from photos.
  2. Good paintings take a long time to finish.
  3. Precision and accuracy are attractive.
  4. I love detail.

Here are what the voices in my head have been saying, and here are my new responses in light of my recent decision (see the September 12 post):

VOICE #1 – “You are drawing with your paintbrush”.

Me – “So what?”

VOICE #2 – “If you paint standing up, you’ll paint with more energy.”

Me – “If my foot hurts, I will paint with more pain.”

VOICE #3 – “You need to listen to cool music while you paint, jazz or classical”.

Me – “This is a great time to listen to talk radio, podcasts about the business of art, interviews with artists and authors and inspirational speakers, sermons I’ve missed from my pastor, and audible books.”

VOICE#4 – “Real artists don’t paint from photos.”

Me – “Okay, I’ll be a fake artist.”

VOICE #5 – “You need to step back from your painting to see how it reads from a distance.”

My – “Thanks for the reminder. I am so into the detail that I forgot!”

Loves Cotton, Loves To Knit, oil on wrapped canvas, 8×8″, $100

 

New and Improved Farewell Gap

Last year I did an oil painting of a standard Mineral King scene, Farewell Gap. It didn’t sell.

No big deal. I took it to shows and put it on my website. It didn’t sell.

What gives? I took it back to the Silver City Store this year and everything has sold so far except that painting.

Finally, I showed it to my friend Tall Cathy, who has been going to Mineral King her entire life, which is about 10 years longer than my life, plus she started at an earlier age. (i.e. Tall Cathy is a bona fide Mineral King Expert.) I asked her, “What’s wrong with this painting?”

She said, “Little Florence is too low”.

I said, “Shoot. I was afraid of that. Guess I’ll take it back to the studio and redo it.”

Little Florence is the peak on the left side of Farewell Gap, and it is lower than Vandever, which is the peak on the right side. Sometimes when you see it from a place other than the bridge, it looks very much lower. With 20,713 photos on my computer, I’m not going to look for the exact one I used for the painting. You can see the concept here:

 

Aside from the fact that normal people don’t lie in the grass to take photos, this is not the normal way that normal people view when they normally view Farewell Gap from the bridge. (There – have I successfully destroyed the word “normal” for you?)

Here it is in its new and improved version. Last year I photographed my paintings. This year I scan them. The color isn’t true either way. Look at the heights of the peaks – this is more of what people expect when they think of Farewell Gap.

Do you agree with this?

Poppies For You!

Poppy I, oil on wrapped canvas, 4×4″, $35

Poppy II, oil on wrapped canvas, 4×4″, $35

Poppy III, oil on wrapped canvas, 4×4″, $35

Poppy IV, oil on wrapped canvas, 4×4″, $35

Or, special deal – buy all four together for $125!

How to Decide if There is Enough Contrast

When I worked exclusively in pencil, a drawing had to have contrast. My friend Debbie used to say, “Remember, black is your friend.” She was right.

Without contrast, a drawing is flat, plain gray and boring.

Paintings can sometimes get away with not very much contrast. They don’t look great, but the color distracts from the lack of value range. (Values are the darks and lights – “value” is a good Artspeak word to know.)

But, I am very aware of contrast and value because of my pencil days.

I painted this little canvas of Timber Gap in Mineral King. It didn’t look very good to me.

 

 

I converted the photo to black and white which confirmed my suspicions of not enough contrast.

There really weren’t enough lupine either, but that’s not the main problem.

Have a look at the redone painting in black and white.

Neat trick, eh?

Here is the finished piece in color.

Timber Gap, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $50